TRIPOLI, libya — Jubilant Libyans chose a new parliament Saturday in their first nationwide vote in decades, but violence and protests in the restive east underscored the challenges ahead for the oil-rich North African nation after last year’s ouster of longtime dictator Moammar Khadafy.
Women ululated, while men distributed sweets and the elderly with canes or wheelchairs struggled to get to polling centers in a show of joy over the most visible step toward democracy since Khadafy was killed by rebel forces last October.
“Look at the lines. Everyone came of his and her own free will. I knew this day would come and Khadafy would not be there forever,” said Riyadh al-Alagy, a 50-year-old civil servant in Tripoli. “He left us a nation with a distorted mind, a police state with no institutions. We want to start from zero.”
But attacks on polling centers in the east — where anger over perceived domination by rivals in the west is fueling a drive for autonomy — laid bare the rifts threatening to tear the nation apart.
Still, the election for a 200-seat parliament, which will be tasked with forming a government, was the latest milestone in a revolution stemming from the Arab Spring revolts that led to the successful ouster of authoritarian leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and later Yemen.
Nearly 2.9 million Libyans, or 80 percent of Libyans eligible to vote, registered for the election. More than 3,000 candidates plastered the country with posters and billboards. Electoral officials said turnout was 60 percent and that counting of the ballots had begun.
“We are celebrating today, and we want the whole world to celebrate with us,” said Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib after he cast his ballot in Tripoli.
As they did in Egypt and Tunisia, Islamists also hope to rise to power in Libya, where they were long repressed under Khadafy’s secular rule. That would leave conservative religious parties with influence over a large and uninterrupted chunk of territory that stretches from Israel’s southern border in Egypt to Tunisia.
One of the main contenders in the race was the Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Construction party, which has led one of the best organized and most visible campaigns.
Three other parties also expected to perform well were former Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril’s secular Alliance of National Forces; former jihadist and rebel commander Abdel-Hakim Belhaj’s Al-Watan; and the National Front, one of Libya’s oldest political groups.
The election lines brought together men, women in black abayas and children accompanying their parents. Many voters waved the Libyan red, green and black flag or wrapped it around their shoulders.
U.S. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, gave the election a clean bill of health during a visit to Tripoli.
“Turnout is very high, polls crowded, and people are obviously enthusiastic,” he said. “Overall, it is a successful operation.”
The last parliamentary election in Libya was in 1964, five years before Khadafy’s military coup that toppled the monarchy. The outcome of Saturday’s vote could give an indication whether Libya will become a united nation keen on rebuilding and moving away from its dark past or fracture along regional, tribal and ethnic lines.
